Author: Blog-admin

Two years ago, (February 7th, 2020..right before the pandemic lockdown), we saw him live. Tatum has been wishing she could have a “do over” (a mulligan if you will) of that experience since she wasn’t as “pleasant” as she could have been. Well, it was the time for him to return in all his glory, and I hopped on the Ticketmaster site the second the concert open. Heartbeat racing; palms sweating; seats disappearing, I finally landed on some seats by the stage. (I wasn’t sure how good they were, but judging the price, I figured they were pretty perfect).

We shall see!
The evening arrived, and per our usual, we packed a tailgate and enjoyed our dinner a la Mercedes interior.

And then got in line to check in.

Anticipation!

Enter the building. Walk down. Down…down…and more down. WHAT!!? We are here??!

(This behind us is the front of the T. I’m in heaven! Terrain is singing right now…she’s back up for Toby, but she has a magnificent voice). We are on the side of the long T.

First act up is Cochrane and Co. I love his voice and his lyrics.

Hallelujah!

Everyone is worshiping together as one. We are truly a family at this concert. Old, young, black, white, brown…you name it…we are a family. So incredible.

Then, David Crowder came up. His music spans the spectrum from hard rock to gospel. Delightfully deep.

Good God Almighty. Such a powerful song.

Humbly we come to you, Lord. On our knees.

After the openers, a pastor, Eric, came up and drew this amazing painting in a few minutes. (upside down…then turned it up and…WOW).

We ended up listening to his message and Tatum wanted to sponsor another child from Food For the Hungry. We are going to pick a young boy from Uganda named Dennis. Stay tuned about this.

9: 01. Here we go! Toby starts with Help is on the Way. And…I’m smiling from ear to ear with how close we are. I grab a chair for Tot so she can see too.

“And we’re holding on to the promises that He’s rolling up sleeves again….”…” It may be midnight or mid day. It’s never early; it’s never late. You can stand by on what He claims….”

She is pretty happy this time around.

I’m literally looking right up at him. TOBY!!!

His music has such incredible depth, yet it is lively. He goes into Love Broke Through.

MOVE! (Keep walking…just keep moving on…don’t let the ….get you down!)

They did an acapella of “21” years to sing about his son. He ended up praying for our city which was so powerful.

His heart for others….is absolutely contagious.

He edifies his band and his surroundings.

Till the Day I Die…(It’s your name I’ll glorify!)

He got so close to us…the boy right next to us got to sing!

Last time I bought a shirt with this on it, but this time we picked up another one for Tot.

I cannot even begin to describe the amazing rush we had at this concert. It was liking being in a worship service for four hours, but with the mighty power of thousands of people on the same page…loving Jesus and celebrating HIS power and LOVE.

Edge of my seat….let’s live like this! What do I GET to do today!?

Thank you Toby for SPEAKING LIFE!
Let’s speak Love, Life..into each other.

Till next time.

We will never forget this evening. Thank you, Hay family, for celebrating it with me. We need more Jesus…all of us. This world! AMEN.

We added a memory rock to our collection.

Ruby and Sophia came over for some fun with Tot.

I made sugar cookies for the girls PLUS some frosting in a bag.

Of course they are going to enjoy the frosting first…and did I mention SPRINKLES?!

Sophia was having a blast making one for her sister, Stella.

The joy of making something and then partaking!

What fun! I’m so grateful for these friends of Tatum’s. They are edifying friends. Builder upper friends.

We had planned to go to Flagstaff for the weekend, but we decided to change our plans. We didn’t want to miss church, and we weren’t sure if the snow would be there.

The morning started out wonderfully. I had a restful sleep which I needed due to my past week tummy woes. Thank you, Jesus!

Church was also wonderful as usual. Tot and I greeted the attendees (who have become dear friends). Later, we planned a HAY DAY! Bike ride, ice cream, park. What more could you want?

We headed out on our bikes (mind you it was about 72 degrees out! WOOHOO!).

Starting out just fine, we wanted to get on the path. This meant going DOWNhill. Ugh. “Ride your brake, Tot, and don’t pedal!” Next thing I know, she is down. Doug is way up ahead. Oh dear. She is completely scraped up and stunned. Luckily, it was just some scrapes, but her wrist hurt quite a bit. After sitting for a few minutes, she agreed to keep going. Yahoo, Tot! Brave girl.

Steadily, we took the path allllll the way to McD’s for our ice cream. This was our motivation! Arriving, we noticed the long drive-thru line and then the sign on the door. NOT OPEN (only drive thru). Ok, shall we wait and then eat at the tables (which don’t exist..HA!) or….do we go across the street to a new experience. -Sweet Republic. I knew it was a gourmet ice cream shop with gourmet prices. Sure, why not!

In we go. We settled on mini-hot fudge sundaes. $6 a pop. ayeyayyae!

I got mine on the side (hot fudge that is), because I like to have a bit with each bite. Maybe I should have gotten extra because they gave me a thimble-full. NO worries, I am going to enjoy this. I must say, McDonalds is so much better, but alas…we are having fun with this sweet treat because the spoons are cool and futuristic.

Daddy, you finished in 3 bites!

No, you cannot have any of ours.

I savor every bite.

This is the antidote to a hurt wrist. She completely forgets about it as we partake. Then……the time has come to hop back on the saddle, and it all comes back to her. She begs me to head to Walgreens to purchase a sling wrap thingamajig. But first, the park.

First, frisbee. This pink little disk is not tossing quite right. I blame the wind, the frisbee, and the trees. Couldn’t possibly be our tosses.

Well, it actually is the frisbee. It lands. It breaks into pieces.

Good thing we brought the mitt and ball. Batter up! Oh wait, we have no bat, but we do have our catching hands and our powerful throws. HA!

Doug is enjoying my stance and set up to powerfully throw the ball.

Tatum attempts to catch each one. I think she enjoyed chasing more than catching it. She’s just like Cooper.

Later, Tot and Doug played on the jungle gym until the pain kicked in.
I did go get the wrap at Walgreen’s and nursed her all better. I hope.

What a fun day despite the injures, scrapes, and kerfuffles.

I love our adventures….boo boos and all!

We are sending in an entry! We love receiving the Clubhouse, and this month they are inviting entries. Tot wanted to draw a picture of our family

Stay tuned!

We are all about gratitude in our home, but we are also about telling each other how much we love each other constantly.

Tatum had this idea tonight. We went into our bathroom only to find…. (my mirror)

Daddy’s mirror: ( She had a bit of a snafu earlier and wanted to apologize. Effective!)

We love you, TOT!!!

I agree wholeheartedly with her!

“All her reading shows in her stories, ” according to Mrs. King (and I concur).

She loves her teacher, Christian.

We just started, and she is seeming to thrive! She loves the opportunity to prove her strength in her compact body.

She’s ready to “stick” it to whoever has any wrong ideas! HA!

Next week, she needs to memorize how to count to ten in Japanese. Stay tuned!